It was only five months before the 2014 Winter Olympics when Team GB snowboarder Billy Morgan ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and medial collateral ligament (MCL) in his right knee during practice. He was medically advised that the injury required an operation, but with the recovery time for an ACL op lasting a...

By Maureen Callahan She’s been called a “slaughterhouse in a blouse” — by Eminem, no less — and loves it. She can take all comers, male or female, and was just ranked the No. 1 pound-for-pound MMA fighter by Sports Illustrated. She usually puts someone away in under a minute; her last fight was 14 seconds. “When I go for it,” Ronda...

By Dominic Hughes Health correspondent, BBC News. Mental health is still an issue that some people are reluctant to talk about despite the fact that one in four people will be affected in some way. So it may come as a surprise that the world of professional football – often seen as macho and tough – is taking the mental...

Why does a top Premier League manager feel alone? How can you feel isolated, with no-one to turn to, in a bustling dressing room? Why can a jet-setting sporting lifestyle leave you feeling like a stranger in your own home? By Tom Reynolds for BBC Sport Elite sport can appear a privileged profession, a chance to live out the...

Their prodigious footballing talents were spotted at an early age, and they were soon snapped up and attached to the biggest clubs writes Andy Mitten from United We Stand in the Bleacher Reports. They won professional contracts, sharing dressing rooms and bedrooms with some of the biggest names in world football. Some even played...

Part three of the special www.independent.ie series about players who have experienced the whirlwind of football, the highs and lows, and where their career eventually took them, inside or outside of the game. This week, John Fallon talks to Laois gaelic footballer and former Celtic soccer player Paul Cahillane What he considered...